Chandigarh Notes

See for yourself
Dharinder Tayal spotted an interesting signboard set up along National Highway 22 a few miles out of Chandigarh and sent Mehitabel a photograph. Erected by the Haryana Police, it bears the message Durghatna sambhavit kshetra or, freely translated "accident-prone area". Tayal comments: "It seems the Haryana Police is offering "accident on demand" — and with site bookings!

And here’s another worth-10,000-words picture sent in by Jagjit Singh of Mohali. This snap was clicked in Phase I near the Fire Brigade. What you see is a garbage dump which Jagjit describes as "ever-growing", moreover, he says that anyone heading for the Electricity Department office has to wade right through this heap of trash.

"The authorities have been approached to clean up the place umpteen times but it just gets worse," he says. Well, Jagjit, your tale is a oft-heard one, but maybe seeing a picture of the mess in print will shame the Municipal Council into sending the sweepers.

One and only
One registration number — CH-01-V-0001 — and claimants willing to pay several thousand of rupees for it. Captain Kanwaljit Singh (and his Mercedes) have been waiting for it since September last and K.D. Singh (and his Tata Sierra) have been waiting since November. And the number goes to ….? Neither of them. Instead, one Rajesh Kumar has got the coveted 0001. The official concerned had allotted him the number the same a day before the series was released.

Amidst charges and counter-charges, the Administration came out richer by Rs 25,000. Meanwhile, the two losers argue that the number could have fetched even more revenue if it had been auctioned. Touching memorialLIFE, AN ART, a moving memorial on the fire tragedy at Mandi Dabwali, was released at a simple function at the Panjab University. Written by Gurtej, a teacher from Mandi Dabwali, the author was a witness to the entire function. He too went to the function but came out just to have water and, spotting some friends, walked a little distance from the site of the function. He lost his entire family in the disaster.On the occasion of the release of the book, a university fellow, Anmol Rattan Sidhu called the book "a memorial in honour of all those who perished in the fire".

Moment of glory
Star PLUS did a feature on some of the good works done by the UT Administration for the City … issuing registration certificates in a day, for instance. This feature was aired several times during the day, so that many of the officials and other functionaries of the Administration who got to know of it remained glued to the small screen. Better still, the small fish telephoned or visited the bigger fish to congratulate them, and share the happy news — all in their own channel. One must concede that the Administration indeed has achieved a feat of sorts by issuing registration certificates in a day. But when something is aired on a satellite channel and that too a phirangi one like `Star Plus,’ it’s a different swad altogether.

Too few papers
The BSc examination conducted at the local SD College presented a unique problem to the invigilators. The number of students who were to appear in the examination exceeded the number of question papers sent by the university. "A dozen question papers short," the invigilators mused…Should they get a photostat copy of the paper? But that would be illegal, since the question paper cannot be taken outside the examination hall. Suddenly somebody had a bright idea, let’s place the question paper in between two students and ask them to share the paper. This continued for nearly an hour, and finally the university despatched more copies of the question paper.

This raises the question — what would happen in case the examination centre is not located in Chandigarh?

Rain …
The city — indeed the entire region was lashed by rains on Sunday morning, which brought down the temperature by about 4 degrees Celcius.The maximum temperature was recorded at 31.5 degrees on Monday, which is 3.5 degrees below normal. The maximum temperature had touched 40 degrees celcius on Saturday.

A total of 39 mm rain was recorded in the City. The unseasonal rain is also likely to have an adverse affect on the crops. While standing crops and stockpiles of grain get damaged due to heavy rain, the harvesting process also gets delayed. The Met office has forecasted a partly cloudy sky tomorrow, with possibility of thundery development towards evening in the City, while rain or thunderstorms have been predicted at several places in the region.

And wind …
The first dust storm of the season hit the city last Tuesday. Compared to many of the haneris that blast the region at the height of summer, this debut storm was mild. Still, it had enough punch to swirl dust under closed doors and whip drying garments off clothes lines. Also, one storm-trick proved to be a useful demonstration of the perils of fibre-glass.

A gust of wind lifted the large cast fibre-glass roof from the top of a house in Sector 44-B and sent it crashing down into the small lawn in front of house next door. The neighbour, who was going out the gate at that moment, got quite a fright seeing the flying roof sail over her head — luckily she wasn’t hit. In certain circumstances, perhaps even pedestrians should wear helmets. And neighbours … please take care to batten down your roofs.

Bride for Sharif
Comely village belles at their daily tasks, coy kudis decked out in old-style finery, buxom Punjabans embodying the traditional way of life at its best — these are the perennial inspiration for Jarnail Singh, a city-basted artist whose paintings are recognisable for their calendar quality.

Jarnail is just back from Pakistan where he, Jagdev Singh Jassowal and Harinder Pal Singh — members of a group called World Punjabi Parivar visited all kinds of places of cultural interest, including the mazars of Punjabi literature’s all-time greats … Waris Shah, Syed Bulleh Shah, Sashim Shah and Hazrat Mian Mir. They even spent a week at Prime Minister Nawaaz Sharif’s farmhouse outside Lahore.They’ve come back with 2 promises from the government of Pakistan Punjab: 1) to sponsor a cultural festival in November that will bring together artists from both Punjabs, and 2) to allow film units from Indian Punjab to shoot films in Pakistan Punjab.

Jarnail mentions with pride that he presented one of his paintings — "Punjabi bride" — to the Pakistan Prime Minister.

Almost riled
Former prime minister Chandra Shekhar came to the City to depose before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to merely identify a letter written by him to the Election Commission in 1996, in an election petition case.When his deposition started, he was asked to take the oath.

The judge asked him to repeat the standard oath "Main jo kuch kahoonga sab sach kahoonga aur sach ke sivay kuchh nahin kahoonga" at which Shekhra said "Main jhooth to bolta hi nahin".

Later, when one of the counsels counter-questioned him on whether he merely wrote to the Election Commissioners or did he meet them too, Shekhra retorted back: "I am not in the habit of meeting officials in their offices. I only write to them or talk on the phone". The questions stopped henceforth, lest Shekhar lose his cool, as feared by his associates.